This invention relates to an improved boarding form suitable for use in hosiery handling apparatus. The collapsible hosiery form is particularly advantageous for panty hose garments and the like in hosiery handling apparatus wherein such garments are mounted for fabric straightening or smoothing, inspection and treating immediately prior to being stripped from the form and packaged.
The collapsible hosiery form is especially useful in the processing of hosiery articles knit from synthetic stretch yarn and is particularly well-adapted to the processing of garments such as knit leotards, panty hose, tights, and the like, these garments collectively hereinafter being referred to generally as panty hose or panty garments.
The hosiery handling apparatus in which the collapsible hosiery form of this invention finds particular utility is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,565 to John W. Glaze, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,054,542 to John W. Glaze, Jr. et al. Such apparatus is generally characterized by a plurality of hosiery forms being conveyed about an endless path from a loading station through a treatment chamber to a stripping station, the treated garment being stripped from the forms at this latter station and characteristically either stacked or supplied directly to appropriate packaging equipment.
Whereas the advent of super stretch synthetic yarns revolutionized the hosiery industry in making possible reduction in the number of sizes of stockings produced or eliminating sizing entirely by making a single-sized, fit-all garment, the introduction of panty hose or panty garments has also necessitated many changes in the methods and procedures employed in the production, packaging and marketing of these panty hose or panty garments.
Conventional hosiery boarding operations, essential prior to the introduction of super stretch yarns, cannot be employed in the production of stockings knit from synthetic stretch yarns because the conventional boarding process either destroys or greatly impairs the stretch quality of the fabric knitted from the super stretch yarn. The elimination of the conventional boarding operation greatly complicated the packaging operation since unboarded garments lacked the finished, smooth appearance imparted by the boarding operation. Thus, it was difficult to insert these unboarded garments into a conventional flat package. For example, super stretch synthetic yarn garments must be treated, inspected, transferred and packaged in a manner that will not unduly stretch the garment. Otherwise the garment would become misshapen if stretched beyond its elastic limits. On the other hand, the garment articles also must be flattened or smoothed and shaped to such a degree as to be easily packaged so they may present an attractive appearance to the purchaser upon removal from such package.
Thus, the prior art in developing hosiery forms utilizable in hosiery handling apparatus such as described in the above-mentioned patents, has proposed hosiery forms such as disclosed in John W. Glaze, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,607. The hosiery form of this patent effectively enables the hosiery article to be temporarily mounted thereon for straightening, inspecting, treating and conveying through the hosiery handling apparatus.
By utilizing hosiery forms in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,607 a so-called semiboarding of the hosiery is achieved. The term semi-boarding is employed to denote a process in which hosiery articles, including panty hose, are temporarily boarded or mounted on the boarding form for such time as it takes to straighten and flatten the hosiery article to eliminate the excess wrinkles, to inspect the article and to treat by processes such as heat treating. The semiboarding carried out on the hosiery form of this prior patent only slightly stretches and shapes the garment. On the hosiery form of this earlier patent, the garment as carried by the expanded form is passed before an illuminated screen or viewing panel which permits easy and efficient inspection of the garment before it passes into a treatment chamber. In such chamber sufficient heat is applied to dry the damp garment and to eliminate wrinkles and substantially set the garment to the smooth, flat shape of the hosiery form without relaxing the yarn sufficiently to materially effect its stretch quality. Upon leaving the treatment chamber, the form is automatically collapsed and the treated garment can be automatically stripped from the form by a pneumatic stripper and thereafter conveyed to a stacking machine or to an automatic packaging machine.
With the rapid increase in the popularity of panty hose or panty garments, prior art collapsible hosiery forms have not been entirely satisfactory in accomplishing garment treatment to obtain the desired entire smooth, flat shape of the panty hose garment when treated on these forms. Whereas the leg portions of the panty garment can be effectively smoothly shaped utilizing prior art hosiery forms, the body portion of the panty garment, namely, that portion which encircles the body of the wearer that is connected to the leg portions of the garment may not always be produced with the desired smoothness or flatness desired for the attractive appearance to the purchaser upon removal of the panty garment from its package.
This failure to effectively smooth or flatten the body encircling portion of the panty garment stems from the fact that prior art collapsible hosiery forms generally are not effective in accommodating the excess or loose fabric material which forms the body portion of the panty garment. In effect, prior hosiery forms tend to leave this loose fabric which forms the body portion of the panty garment in an unsmoothed condition as the form carrying the garment is conveyed through the hosiery handling apparatus where the garment receives the needed treatment to render the desired attractive smooth appearance and flat shape to be seen by the purchaser of the garment upon removal from the garment's package.